


Playing Catch Up

by athersgeo



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, songfic with a twist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-17
Updated: 2016-03-17
Packaged: 2018-05-27 07:39:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6275551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/athersgeo/pseuds/athersgeo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve needs a pop culture primer. Maria might just have one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Playing Catch Up

**Author's Note:**

> Set a month or so after the first Avengers movie but before any of the Phase II movies or before the start of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Steve isn't the sort of man who randomly hates things, but the gaps in his knowledge when it comes to popular culture and the last sixty or so years are something that he could definitely say he dislikes. Intensely. Maybe even hates.

He can learn technology. He can read instructions and figure out devices - even StarkTech comes with a manual, although that manual might just come with a side order of Tony's sense of humour, which Steve could do without. 

He can read histories. He's got a working idea of the main events he missed while he was trapped in his ice tomb. Of the Cold War and the Iron Curtain; of the space race and Kennedy; of the Twin Towers and Afghanistan and Iraq.

But the minutia of living. That's what escapes him and frustrates him.

"What you need," Tony had said, "is a primer."

Steve hadn't disagreed, but the difficulty was coming up with such a thing. Before anyone knew it the whole conversation had devolved into people shouting out ideas and concepts and it had all, frankly, made Steve's head hurt. So he'd left the room and headed up to the roof for some peace and quiet.

That's where he is now, sitting on the edge of the roof, looking out across a city that's changed so much from the one he grew up in - and yet hasn't really changed at all.

He hears the moment someone else comes out onto the roof. For something that Stark built, that roof door squeals like a rusty trap.

"I, have something for you."

The voice is female and not one Steve is expecting. Turning, he confirms that the speaker is, in fact, Lieutenant Hill. He's fairly sure she wasn't in the conference room earlier, but, then again, it got so noisy so quick that he's not certain he'd have noticed if Loki and the whole Chitauri army had joined them.

"For me?"

"Stark said you were looking for a pop culture primer," she clarifies, holding out a single sheet of paper. "This should get you started. Look each of the items up on Wikipedia."

Steve frowns. He's been introduced to the concept of Wikipedia before, but… "I thought it wasn't much good for research."

Hill smiles briefly. "Not for serious academic research, no. But to help you out right now, it's a start." She gestures with the piece of paper. "It won't get you right up to the present, but it'll get you half way there."

Getting to his feet, Steve takes the sheet from her and looks at the first item on the list: Harry Truman. "He was the president who dropped the bomb - I know that."

Hill smiles again. "Keep reading."

Doris Day - a name that's faintly familiar, though he doesn't know why. Red China he knows. Johnny Ray he doesn't. And so it goes on, down the list until he reaches such unlikely concepts as 'heavy metal suicide' and 'hypodermics on the shore'. "What is this?"

"A primer," says Hill, turning to leave.

"No, seriously, what is this?" he repeats. "How did you come up with this?"

Hill freezes for a moment, her back to him. Then she turns back and Steve is startled to see she actually looks sheepish. Lieutenant Hill never looks anything other than self-assured.

"If it's private--" he begins.

"No - it's not private; just a little silly," she answers. "It's from a song."

Steve looks at the list again and this time he can almost see the lyrical cadence to the references. And yet… "Weird concept for a song."

"It is - was." Another brief smile. "Have fun, Captain."

"Steve," Steve corrects. "Pretty sure we're off duty right now."

She inclines her head in a brisk nod and this time, as she turns to leave, Steve lets her go. The roof door squeaks and slams and he turns his attention back to the list. Who on earth would combine such wildly differing things in a song? And why? And what in the blue heck was 'space monkey' going to be slang for?

For just a moment, Steve is torn between intrigue and terror.

Then he chuckles. The intrigue wins out. He has his primer. And maybe it is a little weird and silly, but he's pretty sure the yawning gap in his knowledge won't be quite so bad when he's finished this exercise.

**Author's Note:**

> The song (for those who haven't figured it out) is Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" - I was listening to it one afternoon and it struck me as just about the perfect way to help Steve's knowledge of pop culture, thus this story was born.
> 
> Apologies for anyone who now has it as an earworm!


End file.
